


The One with Rapunzel's Hair

by GriffinRose



Series: The Misadventures of the Big Four at Hogwarts [2]
Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of The Brave Tangled Dragons - Fandom, Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Dramatic Hair cut, Gen, Rapunzel is done ya'll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 06:44:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20004019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GriffinRose/pseuds/GriffinRose
Summary: Seventy feet of hair really is unmanageable, but Rapunzel keeps it for her mother's sake. Until the day she decides enough is enough.There's no going back now.





	The One with Rapunzel's Hair

**Author's Note:**

> Middle of their sixth year in this one!

ROTBTD HP AU- Rapunzel’s Hair

Rapunzel didn’t usually mind keeping her seventy feet of hair unbound. Most people in the school had learned how to step over it, and she knew some people were betting how long it would take before she finally cut it. She was also just so used to nesting in her hair, and it provided an excellent scarf in the drafty castle.

Normally she did keep it plaited though, a process that took an hour and some help from her roommates. It still reached the floor, but at least she didn’t have to worry about people stepping on it. She was asked constantly why she didn’t cut it, and her response was always the same.

Her mother had told her not to. She knew her hair contained magic qualities and that once cut, it would never work again. So she let it continue to grow. She didn’t mind her long hair. The care of her hair was the one thing she still had in common with her mother.

Gothel had been furious when Rapunzel had gotten her letter, and she had tried everything she could to make Rapunzel not go. But Rapunzel had been adamant that she wanted to go, and when a wizard came and inquired what her response was Gothel had been unable to keep Rapunzel from going. She visited every other weekend for an hour though. Rapunzel was pretty sure her mother was the only one who did that, but it was a small price to pay for everything she was learning.

This visit though…Rapunzel learned something that would change her life forever.

It had started as normal as ever. Gothel had met her in the entrance hall before going into a classroom and had offered to brush out Rapunzel’s hair, and Rapunzel had sung their special song while Gothel did. It glowed like normal, and her mother seemed to have her energy restored like usual.

Rapunzel then asked about her father. It was a topic that she’d always been curious about, and she didn’t feel right asking in a letter. Gothel’s hand froze mid-brush.

“Why on earth do you want to know about a thing like that?” she asked, continuing to brush.

“I just want to know who he is or what he was like…did he know about my hair?”

“That’s enough questions Rapunzel,” Gothel said.

“Oh come on, you never tell me anything about him! I think I’m old enough to know!” Rapunzel persisted.

“There’s nothing to know,” Gothel said, continuing to brush out the long golden hair.

“Please? Can’t you tell me something?” Rapunzel asked.

“There’s nothing to tell,” Gothel said, her voice getting deeper and her brush strokes getting more forceful.

“Sure there is! What was his name? What color hair did he have?”

“Enough Rapunzel!” Gothel shouted. “Your father doesn’t know about you or your hair!”

Rapunzel hunched her shoulders and looked over her shoulder at her mother cautiously. Gothel frowned while continuing to brush out Rapunzel’s hair. Rapunzel frowned too while she looked forward again. Her curiosity wasn’t sated though, and after so many years of being friends with Jack and Merida, she had learned she didn’t always have to give in.

“We could tell him,” Rapunzel suggested quietly.

“No! Your hair is my treasure alone!” Gothel said, fisting her hand in the gold locks. Rapunzel jerked around.

“Is that all you care about? We don’t have to tell him about that! I just want to meet him!” Rapunzel said. Gothel’s scowl only softened marginally. “Sometimes I feel like you just care about my hair, not me.”

Rapunzel crossed her arms tightly over her chest and looked away again.

“You know I love you,” Gothel said.

“Then why can’t I know about my father? You won’t even say if he’s dead or alive!” Rapunzel said.

“Because I don’t know if he is or not,” Gothel said calmly, reaching for Rapunzel’s hair again. Rapunzel jerked her hair away from Gothel’s reach.

“Why is my hair so important to you?” Rapunzel asked. “All you ever want to do is brush my hair and sing…don’t I mean anything to you?”

Gothel gave Rapunzel a hard stare. “Of course you do,” she stated flatly. Rapunzel narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

“We’ve never even had a decent conversation about school,” Rapunzel said quietly. “I just ramble on while you sit there brushing my hair, and the second I get home you forbid me from speaking of it.”

“Rapunzel…” Gothel started.

“No!” Rapunzel shouted, getting up and running out of the room. She grabbed armfuls of her hair as she went so she wouldn’t have to worry about catching it in doorways. Tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision as she ran. It was only because she knew these halls so well that she was able to make it the Hufflepuff dorm without incident.

She blocked out the people who called after her and didn’t respond to anyone. She practically screamed the password and ran through the door and to the fifth year dorm room.

None of her roommates were in their room, so she locked the door and then collapsed on her bed, sobbing into her quilt. Her hair pooled around her, and she angrily shoved it out of the way.

“Rapunzel?” someone knocked on the door.

“Go away!” Rapunzel yelled. “I just want to be alone!”

“What’s going on?” It sounded like one of her roommates. They must have been in the common room when she ran through.

“Just leave me alone!” Rapunzel said.

“Alright…just let me know if you need anything…”

Rapunzel curled up on her bed, her hair tangling around her limbs. She grabbed at it.

“Stupid hair…you’re always in the way…” Her fists tightened around the strands. “Mother cares so much about my precious hair…she doesn’t even care about me.”

She let the hair fall and hugged her knees to her chest, tears streaming down her face.

She stayed curled up like that for hours. The tears eventually stopped, and she just laid there in depression. Her roommates eventually needed to come back into the room, using magic to unlock the door. Sally was kind enough to pull the bed curtains around Rapunzel’s bed shut, giving Rapunzel as much privacy as they could in a shared room.

They brought her dinner as well and told her that Merida, Hiccup, and Jack had asked about her, but Rapunzel didn’t respond. All she could think about was how much she hated her hair. The hour it took to braid, the hours she spent brushing it. Cleaning it was an all day process…and for what? She had used it to heal before, but she knew regular magic that did the same thing. And her mother was so preoccupied with it…Sometimes Rapunzel really did wonder whether Gothel loved her at all, or if it had always been about her hair.

The lights went out in the room as her roommates went to bed. Rapunzel lay awake. Their soft snores eventually permeated the air, and Rapunzel made her decision.

Nothing would ever get better with this hair…her mother would never care for her if she was always more concerned about the blonde locks.

Rapunzel picked up her wand and sat up on her bed. She muttered the word she needed and moved her wand through her hair. Blonde locks fell to her bed and turned brown. She didn’t know if she was cutting evenly or not, and she really didn’t care. She just wanted it gone.

She breathed heavily, brown hair surrounding her on her bed. Her head felt light without all that weight, and she reached a shaking hand up to the shortened hair. It felt choppy and the front kept falling into her face.

She immediately regretted her decision. It probably looked terrible, and now there was nothing she could do to change it. Her mother would be furious with her. She shouldn’t have done that. Her hair was precious, it was special. And now she had thrown that out the window like it was garbage.

“What have I done?” she muttered, dropping her wand on the mess and grabbing fistfuls of her hair on either side of her head. “What have I done?”

XX

Jack had gone to breakfast early, partly because he was hungry and partly because he knew Rapunzel would be there early, if she was feeling better. No one knew what happened, only that she had run crying into her room and had refused to speak with anyone. Understandably, Jack was worried. Rapunzel was the most sensitive out of them all, but usually she could bounce back in no time. When she wasn’t at breakfast, his concern only grew.

He locked eyes with Merida and Hiccup and nodded, getting up from the Gryffindor table. He would try his luck with her first, and if he couldn’t get anywhere one of the others would try. If all three of them failed, they would try together. Such was the way they usually dealt with emotional crises.

Emma took Jack into the Hufflepuff dorm. Everyone nodded at him as he passed, hoping he’d be able to cheer their bubbly housemate up. The stairs would have been a problem for any other boy, but Jack made steps out of ice over the slide. It would eventually melt, but for now no one was coming up to bother them.

“Rapunzel?” he called gently, knocking on the door as he pushed it open. Her bed was the only one that still had the curtains drawn. “Punz?”

“Go away,” she said softly. Her voice sounded tired, like she had been up the whole night.

“Not a chance,” Jack said. “What’s going on Punzie? What happened?”

She didn’t answer so he reached for the bed curtains. “I hope you’re decent,” he muttered before pulling them back.

The sight that met his eyes was not one he’d been expecting. For one, Rapunzel was sitting in the middle of giant pile of hair, which considering who she was isn’t unusual, but this hair was brown and it wasn’t connected to her head. Rapunzel herself definitely looked like she hadn’t slept all night, and short choppy brown hair framed her face and stuck up in the back. She looked up at him, biting her lip and fresh tears forming in her eyes.

“Oh Punz…what _happened_?” Jack asked again, his eyes wide as he looked her over.

Her response was to bury her face in her hands and start crying again.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Jack said, sitting down next to her and wrapping his arms around her. “You’re fine. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I-It’s my mother…she only cared about my hair…that’s all she’s ever cared about…and I’m so sick and tired of taking care of it…she can have it! I don’t want it anymore!”

Jack chuckled. “Well I think you got your wish princess,” he said. “You don’t have it anymore.”

Rapunzel reached up to her hair again. “It looks terrible doesn’t it? I shouldn’t have cut it…oh why did I do it?”

“Hey, I think it looks great,” Jack said. “It’s a huge shock, but honestly it looks great. I think it goes with your eyes better.”

“You’re just saying that,” Rapunzel said. “It’s all uneven and it’s always in my face.”

“Well for that you’ll have to consult other girls,” Jack stated. “But I’m not just saying that. It really does look good. Here,” he reached over and pulled the hand mirror off her nightstand, the same one she’d brought him to show him his white hair. “See for yourself.”

She took the mirror and angled it to see her new look. It really was a huge shock…she looked completely different. Older. She bit her lip. “It’s really not bad?”

“No, it’s not. And you stood up to your mother, congrats!” Jack said. Rapunzel smiled softly, still looking in the mirror.

“Thanks, Jack,” she said. She lowered the mirror. “But she’ll be furious when she finds out.”

He shrugged. “There’s nothing she can do though,” he pointed out. “It’s not going to reattach itself.”

“No, I know,” Rapunzel said. “But…will you guys be there when she comes back?”

“Of course we will,” Jack said. “We’ll never let you go through anything alone, okay?”

Rapunzel nodded. “Thanks Jack.”

“Don’t mention it. Now what do you think about breakfast?”

Rapunzel’s stomach growled in response. “That does sound good,” she admitted. Jack smirked.

“Great! Time to show off your new look!”

He pulled her off the bed and dragged her out of the room. People in the common room gasped when they saw Rapunzel and she reached a hand up to her hair self-consciously. Jack dragged her away though, intending to tell Merida and Hiccup what had happened. Close friends were the ones who mattered, after all.

The two of them weren’t waiting very far away. Their mouths dropped and their eyes widened when they saw Rapunzel. They had to give her the same reassurances Jack had, but she warmed up to them quickly and they all went back down to breakfast.

Xx

Gothel came back two weeks later, right on schedule. Rapunzel was holding one of Jack’s hands and one of Hiccup’s hands, and Merida stood in front of her with her wand already in her hand. Rapunzel chewed her lip while she waited, her hands growing clammy in the boys’.

Gothel paused when she came into the room and found the group of them. Her face remained a mask of cool indifference until she saw Rapunzel’s hair.

Her eyes widened and she rushed over. “What have you done?” she demanded, reaching a hand up to the brown locks.

Merida, Hiccup, and Jack weren’t happy at Gothel being that close, but they couldn’t deny a mother this proximity to her own daughter.

Rapunzel automatically shrank back. “All you ever care about is my hair…so I cut it off.” Her voice was quiet and she wouldn’t look at her mother. Gothel pulled her hand back and backed up.

“Rapunzel…you little brat!” she yelled. She grabbed fistfuls of her hair and looked away. Rapunzel bit her lip again. “How could you do this to me?”

“To you? It’s her hair! How could you make her grow it out to such unmanageable lengths?” Merida demanded.

“None of you brats understand!” Gothel yelled, turning around to them again. Her face was lined with wrinkles that hadn’t been there before, and her hair was streaked with gray. She’d literally aged ten years since walking through the door.

“Mother?”

“I should have kept you in that tower like I planned!” Gothel said. She took a few steps towards Rapunzel, but Merida stepped between them, a wand raised. “You were more trouble than you were worth!”

The four of them gasped and Rapunzel lifted her hands to her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

“Don’t talk to her like that! She’s your daughter!” Jack yelled.

Gothel laughed and turned away. “Actually, she’s not. I stole her for her hair when she was a baby.”

Their eyes widened and Gothel stormed out. For several moments no one moved.

“She’s…not my…mother?” Rapunzel asked in a whisper.

“She kidnapped ya!” Merida stated in disbelief.

“I don’t know if that makes this situation better or worse,” Hiccup said.

“All this time…my whole life…it was all a lie?” Rapunzel asked. She broke down into sobs, and even all three of them together couldn’t calm her down.

“Um, should we tell someone about this?” Hiccup asked about ten minutes later. “I mean, we just found out that Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby…we have to do something, right?”

“Yeah, we should tell someone,” Jack agreed. He turned back to Rapunzel. “Hey Punz…who do you want to tell?”

She shook her head. Her face was a blotchy mess of snot and tears. “What does it matter?”

Jack crouched in front of her and pushed her bangs behind her ears. “I guess whichever teacher we tell doesn't matter,” he allowed. “But you know what does? _That_ person wasn’t your real mother. Your _real_ mother is probably still out there and probably wants to meet you. Now you have the chance to find a better mother.”

“Consider yourself lucky,” Merida muttered, rolling her eyes.

Hiccup and Jack cast quick glares at her. She threw her hands up in the air and turned for the door. “I’m going to go tell someone what happened. Whoever I find first.”

Hiccup shook his head while she walked out. Merida might not be getting along with her own mother right now, but now wasn’t the time.

Rapunzel sniffed and dragged an arm over her face. “You really think my real mom is still out there?”

“I know she is,” Jack said. He wrapped her in a hug. “And I’m sure she’s as sweet and kind as you are, and she probably bakes amazing cookies, and she’s going to love you to pieces.”

Hiccup put a hand on Rapunzel’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll be right by your side the whole time.”

Rapunzel offered both of them watery smiles. “Thanks, guys. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

The feeling was mutual, even if the others didn’t voice it at that moment. Their friendship had grown so close over the years, they truly didn’t know what they’d do without the others.

But at least whatever the future brought them, they knew exactly who’d be in their corner with them.


End file.
